Neighborhoods of Neighbors: How Putting the Neighbor Back in the Neighborhood Can Unlock some of Austin's Most Vexing Problems

Austin is a magnetic city with a unique culture and quality of life under threat. Adding population faster than the City can plan for its future, Austin is becoming ever more congested, unaffordable, and segregated. Recent planning efforts to address these problems have foundered on a suspicious community lacking trust.

But what can be done?

Doug Farr, author of Sustainable Nation: Urban Design Patterns for the Future, believes that neighborhoods are the messy yet sustainable structure to cities, and will discuss how empathetic planning that invites the whole of the community into the discussion, and requires considering the perspective of others, is the key to inspiring trust and unlocking sustainable solutions to the problems of growth.